 KOSOVAN VICTIMS of NATO’s bombing of Korisa weep for their dead child |
THE HORRIFIC slaughter of at least 87 Kosovan people in Korisa last week by US bombs exposes the reality behind NATO's call for more attacks, more destruction and more terror. NATO's top air commander, Lieutenant General Michael Short, is dissatisfied with the hundreds of dead already. He says it is "now time to take the gloves off". Short adds that NATO must ensure "no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can't get to work because the bridge is down-the bridge on which you held your rock concerts and you all stood with targets on your heads."
NATO planes are now launching 700 air strikes every day in Yugoslavia. That will mean 5,000 strikes a week-almost the total during the seven weeks since the war started on 24 March. That can only lead to more examples every day of NATO killing civilians and destroying factories, roads and power stations like the toll of destruction they ran up last week. It is ordinary workers, pensioners, children and the unemployed who suffer from NATO's bombs.
| SOME ARE doing well out of all the death and destruction. British Aerospace share prices have risen by 43 percent since NATO's bombardment began. And shares in Boeing hit a 52 week high recently. |
On Tuesday of last week NATO succeeded in killing four year old Dragana Dimic and two 60 year olds-Bosko and Rosa Jankovic-by striking the village of Staro Gradsko with cluster bombs. Twenty houses were destroyed. NATO bombs then killed four workers when they hit the town of Cacak-Dragan Obrenic, 29 years old, and 44 year old Velija Dzemilovic were killed standing in front of their houses. Construction workers Nasko Ristic and Milos Jovic were killed when the truck they were travelling in was hit by a NATO missile. Twelve other workers were seriously wounded.
NATO bombs seriously wounded five villagers while they were working in their fields in Kraljevo. Another person was killed and several seriously wounded when NATO bombed the Jugopetrol oil compound in Nis. One woman was killed when NATO bombed a bridge near the village of Orljane on the Nis-Belgrade highway.
The next day civilian apartments and schools were destroyed by the NATO bombing of Nis when hundreds of cluster bombs were dropped in an intensive raid on the city. Two high school students, 18 year old Milan Ignjatovic and 17 year old Gordana Nikolic, were killed when NATO bombed the town of Vladicin Han. The youth centre, sports centre, shops and the health centre were also destroyed.
NATO's bombardment continued with eight missiles hitting the technical institute and Cer heating appliance factory in Cazak last Saturday. The village of Balic was also hit for five hours by NATO planes with missiles and cluster bombs. Then on Sunday six workers were injured when NATO bombs hit a transformer station in the Bor mining-smelting complex in the Smederevo. NATO's intensified bombing means there will be dozens of horrors every day.
NATO POWERS say the bombing would not have started if Milosevic had accepted the "peace accords" drafted at Rambouillet in France in February. But the details of these negotiations show that NATO made its conditions virtually impossible to agree to.
The little known Appendix B section of the Rambouillet agreement amounts to NATO being allowed to be an occupying force-not just in Kosovo but in Serbia as well. That was then presented to Yugoslavia as a "take it or leave it" option. The Rambouillet accords state that a NATO force must be "immune from all legal process, whether civil, administrative or criminal, [and] under all circumstances and at all times immune from [all laws] governing any criminal or disciplinary offences which may be committed by NATO personnel in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
"NATO personnel shall enjoy with their vehicles, vessels, aircraft and equipment, free and unrestricted passage and unimpeded access throughout the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including associated airspace and territorial waters." It continues, "NATO personnel shall be immune from any form of arrest, investigation or detention by the authorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
Rambouillet also states that the government of Yugoslavia "shall, upon simple request, grant all telecommunications services, including broadcast services, needed for [the occupation] as determined by NATO. This shall be free of cost." In case any doubt is left, the accords also state, "NATO is granted the use of airports, roads, rail and ports without payment of fees, duties, tolls or charge. The economy shall function in accordance with free market principles."
Any sense of democracy would be shattered by the accord as the Chief of the Implementation Mission, someone appointed by the European Union countries, will be the "final authority" on the interpretation of "civilian aspects of the agreement", and their decision is binding. This means the chief has the power to overturn elections, shut down organisations and the media and overrule decisions made by the Kosovan or Serbian governments. No government could accept this.
General Satish Nambiar, the Indian head of the United Nations mission in Yugoslavia 1992-3, said recently that: "The Yugoslav government had indicated its willingness to abide by nearly all provisions of the Rambouillet 'agreement' on aspects like a ceasefire and greater autonomy to the Albanians. But they would not agree to station NATO forces on the soil of Yugoslavia. This is precisely what India would have done under the same circumstances."
FISHERMEN IN the region around Venice in Italy went on strike last week in protest at NATO ditching bombs in the sea near where they fish. Most of the bombs, dumped by planes returning from raids on the Balkans, are between seven and 22 miles off the coast. But some have drifted towards the Venetian lagoon. Fishermen also reported that some had been found between Jesolo and the Venice Lido, a popular tourist area. Last week three fishermen were injured when bombs exploded which they had caught in their nets.
NATO officials claimed that the bombs might have come from the Second World War. But Gimmi Zenaro, the captain of the fishing boat, said, "The bombs are yellow canisters about the size of a beer can. They have American markings and they are dated 1999." This is a very precise description of the "bomblets" produced by cluster bombs. NATO has already admitted that its planes dropped laser guided munitions and cluster bombs in Lake Garda.
THE KOSOVO Liberation Army (KLA) has appointed a new commander, Agim Ceku, who was a brigadier-general with the Croatian army for eight years. Ceku took part in Operation Storm in 1995, when 200,000 Serbs fled the Krajina area as the Croatian army attacked. The assault was backed by Western firepower.
Around 10,000 Serbs stayed behind but more than 200 of them were killed or disappeared. Now this brutal thug, who was decorated nine times during his army service, is being welcomed into the KLA and given the brief of reorganising its army.